Can't use both wired and wireless networking at same time

[nemo]

I have a new laptop with Vista Home Premium and I am using the
wireless connection to reach a router to connect to the Internet.
When I attach a cable for my local network, the connection to the
Internet is broken. I am still connected to the wireless router, but
the Internet connection is lost.

If I disconnect the wired LAN connection the Internet connection
returns after a while.

I had been trying to share the Internet connection, but now I just
want to be able to access both from this machine.

 

[nemo]

Why are the 2 networks separate?   Run a cable from your wireless router to
your local network hub.   That way you have internet connection thru the
wire AND you can see your local network when running wireless.

This is the way I have always done it here.

Running a wire for a wireless connection kind of defeats the purpose
of the wireless connection! PCs can and have used more than one
network interface for many years. There is something goofy about the
configuration under Vista. I have done this before under Win2k. I
have even shared a modem over a network under Win2k.

 

[+Bob+]

Running a wire for a wireless connection kind of defeats the purpose
of the wireless connection! PCs can and have used more than one
network interface for many years. There is something goofy about the
configuration under Vista. I have done this before under Win2k. I
have even shared a modem over a network under Win2k.

nemo:

Not a direct answer... but Vista definitely has some issues in this
area. Myself and associates have found it exceedingly difficult even
to switch from wireless to wired; or in the case of wired, to
disconnect the cable without Vista going into a hung state. Generally
you have to disable and enable the cards before making any changes or
it rarely hooks up correctly.

One associate finds that he can't even change wireless networks
without disabling/enabling the network interface. Some folks have
managed to pull off the switch by issuing an ipconfig/renew. On other
systems, nothing short of a reboot allows it to happen.

Perhaps the reboot with both connections hooked up or disable wireless
-connect wired - enable wireless scenario would work.

 

[nemo]

Not at all.   There is no reason to have your "local" network separate from
your "wireless internet connection".   It should be the same network.   I
can take my wireless laptop and plug it into the network for faster file
copies between machines here, because wired 100M networking blows the doors
off of any wireless connection.   When I do this, I still have internet
access, because my wireless router is connected to my network hub.   When
the big file copy is done, I can unplug the cable and continue with the
wireless connection.   For small files I can just use the wireless
connection.

The point is, both wireless and wired can see the internet AND all computers
here in the house can see each other.   Which I use depends on what I am
doing and where I am doing it.

There is no need to "share your wireless connection" via Windows Internet
Connection Sharing.   Just connect your wireless router to your networkhub.
All wired computers now have internet access, and all wired and wireless
computers can see each other.   The wifi connection doesn't go away just
because you plugged in a cable!   The added bonus is you don't have to leave
the "sharing" computer on for the other computers to have internet access..
Your router handles this.

Seriously, I don't understand why you want to have 2 separate networks.
Connect them together and all your troubles are over.

That is right, you don't understand. The Internet connection is in
one place and the wired network is in another. To do what you are
suggesting would require me to put everything in one place. Not much
point to using wireless if I have to run a cable just to put the wired
connections on the Internet. That is the part you aren't grasping.
The wired network is not near the Internet connection, so I can't just
put them all on the same router.

 

[the wharf rat]

Not at all. There is no reason to have your "local" network separate from
your "wireless internet connection". It should be the same network. I

Security.

Oh, yeah, that's right, wireless is perfectly secure and so is
wired networking as long as you only run nice safe Microsoft windows. Never
mind.

 

[Ferd Burfel]

It's just the way I'd set my network up if I was boot legging off my
neighbor's wireless. :~)

Ferd

 

[Ferd Burfel]

Would those neighbors be The Farkle family? Frank and Fanny Farkle,
Flicker Farkle ("Hi!"), Sparkle Farkle, and the twins Simon and Gar
Farkle?

That would be them.

Fine looking family Frank has there.

Ferd

 

[nemo]

It's just the way I'd set my network up if I was boot legging off my
neighbor's wireless. :~)

Or if you had two rooms with computers (home office and family room).
Perhaps you bought a POS machine running Vista and can't connect your
printer directly to it, so you have to use a old Pentium MMX machine
connected via Ethernet to act as a printer server. Actually Vista is
not the real issue, the lack of a parallel port on the laptop prevents
a direct hookup.

I don't know the Farkles. Are they the family that moved into the
station wagon parked at the trailer park down the road?

 

[nemo]

i do what ur trying to achieve all day everyday on my Vista laptop, so
let me just tell you its not a fault of the OS. Heres a quick rundown. I
have the internet cable modem connected to the wired network, or usb,
with auto configured IP which successfully comes from the Network
Provider. I then have manual configured IP address's for the wireless
network, configuring the box sharing the connection as 192.168.0.1 and
the other boxes with gateway set to 192.168.0.1 Then on the shared
connection box i configure to share the connection on the wired adapter
with the wireless. And it works all the time, everytime, 100% reliable.
XP used to be flaky on the wireless connection to my PDA especially, but
Vista is awesome.

If I understand what you are saying, you have the cable modem on a
wired network (which is irrelevant to the rest of this) and a wireless
net (the important part). The wireless connection uses manually
assigned IP addresses (are they manual at both ends then?). Then you
have a PC on the wireless net connected to other devices by wired
Ethernet. I think I see the issue here. You are using the wireless
PC as a router, no? I am using an old DI-514 router to connect the
wireless PC and the wired PC. I would just use the router (it has a
wireless function) as a bridge, but it seems it does not have this
capability.

So as long as I only want to connect a single wired PC to the wireless
PC I guess I could do what you are doing. But what if I have a second
PC (third actually) to add to the wired net (or some other device such
as a printer or game)? How would I put two devices on the wired net
off of the wireless PC? Can I use a router or is there a way to do it
without the router? I also have an old switch box sitting around if
that would work better than a router.

 

[nemo]

Again, if the wired and wireless networks were the same network, this
wouldn't be a problem.   Any computer could talk to any device on the
network.   I have an HP LaserJet 4 printer connected to the hub (its an
ethernet printer).   I can print to it from any computer in the house, wired
or wireless.

You keep inventing convoluted solutions to get around your real problem.

I don't know why you keep posting. You are not helping and you seem
to have a problem with the fact that I am asking for advice. I don't
want to run a 70 foot cable through the house just to make you feel
better. Is that clear?

I want to connect a wired Ethernet between a laptop that connects to a
wireless network and one or possibly two PCs that are right next to
the laptop. I have in my possession a fairly old router, an even
older switch and a few short cables. I don't want to buy new
hardware. I don't want to rewire my house. I just want to learn how
to make the software work the way it is supposed to work.

I don't mean to be offensive, Bob, but if you don't have anything to
contribute, then why don't you just not butt in?

 

[NotEvenMe]

It's just the way I'd set my network up if I was boot legging off my
neighbor's wireless. :~)

Or if you had two rooms with computers (home office and family room).
Perhaps you bought a POS machine running Vista and can't connect your
printer directly to it, so you have to use a old Pentium MMX machine
connected via Ethernet to act as a printer server. Actually Vista is
not the real issue, the lack of a parallel port on the laptop prevents
a direct hookup.

I don't know the Farkles. Are they the family that moved into the
station wagon parked at the trailer park down the road?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hmmm, I have a USB to printer cable that I use for my HP 4100DTN at work.
It is USB on the computer end, old style huge printer plug on the other.
Direct hookup and no network required.
This 4100 is ethernet capable, but unless I put a hub/switch in my office, I
don't have cabling for it.
I have a minimum of 2 ethernet ports in every office, but with my computer &
VOIP phone daisy chained and the other port used for my modem's connection
to the analog adapter in the server room, I'm out of ports.
The 4100 is nearing 1M pages printed and still going strong; amazing!

 

[NotEvenMe]

Maybe I missed something here...
Where is the internet connection?
In a different room than the laptop?
If you are connecting the laptop to the wireless in another room and want to
share that connection for the other 2 PCs in the same room as the laptop, it
sounds like Internet Connection Sharing needs to be configured.
The laptop would connect to the old router through the ethernet port and the
other 2 PCs would connect to the router.
The 2 PCs would have to use ICS to connect, which would limit the speed of
all, but might be managable.

Again, if the wired and wireless networks were the same network, this
wouldn't be a problem. Any computer could talk to any device on the
network. I have an HP LaserJet 4 printer connected to the hub (its an
ethernet printer). I can print to it from any computer in the house, wired
or wireless.

You keep inventing convoluted solutions to get around your real problem.

I don't know why you keep posting. You are not helping and you seem
to have a problem with the fact that I am asking for advice. I don't
want to run a 70 foot cable through the house just to make you feel
better. Is that clear?

I want to connect a wired Ethernet between a laptop that connects to a
wireless network and one or possibly two PCs that are right next to
the laptop. I have in my possession a fairly old router, an even
older switch and a few short cables. I don't want to buy new
hardware. I don't want to rewire my house. I just want to learn how
to make the software work the way it is supposed to work.

I don't mean to be offensive, Bob, but if you don't have anything to
contribute, then why don't you just not butt in?

 

[Ferd Burfel]

Or if you had two rooms with computers (home office and family room).
Perhaps you bought a POS machine running Vista and can't connect your
printer directly to it, so you have to use a old Pentium MMX machine
connected via Ethernet to act as a printer server. Actually Vista is
not the real issue, the lack of a parallel port on the laptop prevents
a direct hookup.

I don't know the Farkles. Are they the family that moved into the
station wagon parked at the trailer park down the road?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hmmm, I have a USB to printer cable that I use for my HP 4100DTN at work.
It is USB on the computer end, old style huge printer plug on the other.
Direct hookup and no network required.
This 4100 is ethernet capable, but unless I put a hub/switch in my office,
I don't have cabling for it.
I have a minimum of 2 ethernet ports in every office, but with my computer
& VOIP phone daisy chained and the other port used for my modem's
connection to the analog adapter in the server room, I'm out of ports.
The 4100 is nearing 1M pages printed and still going strong; amazing!

I was going to suggest that as well:

http://www.iogear.com/product/GUC1284B/

or similar. I've seen the Belkin version at WalMart.

There are USB-to-Serial adapters as well, usefull for connecting to the
console ports of switches, amongst other things.

Ferd